


The Discovery of Carmilla

by Nenalotte



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Discovery of Carmilla, F/F, Forests, Mountains, Secrets, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:20:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2832968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nenalotte/pseuds/Nenalotte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set directly after episode 36, the gang flees from Silas campus and stumbles upon a castle, hidden in the woods.<br/>What would happen if Lafontaine accidentally dug up the last copy of “Carmilla” there?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Run For It

**EPISODE 1: RUN FOR IT**

* * *

 

“What happened?!”

Everyone was in a total panic.

“Run, we have to run, they’re coming…”

There were people pushing left and right and the hallways smelled like sweat while the alarm went off in deafening wails and stroboscopic flashes.

“What on- oh my god!!!”

Laura saw someone being smashed into the wall and fall but no one bothered to pick her up. “Hey!” She shrieked. “Hey!!” But the crowd pushed and pulled and she was forced forward, squeezed in between hot bodies. “Carm!!”

“Laura!”

A cool, strong hand gripped hers and she saw Carmilla’s face briefly behind the broad shoulders of a Zeta. Her expression was blank, rigid, nearly emotionless – so very different to how Laura felt on the inside, which was absolutely terrified.

It couldn’t be far to the main exit now, soon they would be outside in the courtyard, in the fresh air… She had to hold onto that thought. For now, she could see Danny’s tall head bobbing in the crowd about five yards further down the hall. No doubt, Lafontaine and Perry were right behind her somewhere. No doubt. Right?

Then they went through the heavy oaken doors and suddenly the cold air hit her in the face like a flat hand. People were stumbling into the square around her and through the searing alarm now rose a rumbling, so deep and so loud that she could feel it vibrate in her stomach.

“Oh god, Laura, you’re alright.” Danny forced her way through the people around Laura and Carmilla, a very worried look on her face and out of breath as she looked from the brunette to the vampire. “I thought I’d lost you… two.”

Right behind her followed Lafontaine and Perry, of whom the latter had a distant gleam to her eyes that made Laura believe that she wasn’t really recording what was going on around her.

“We’re alright, we’re all alright.” Laura repeated it once more. Danny gave her a reassuring smile.

Then the alarm suddenly stopped. Laura wasn’t sure what was worse; the deafening noise, or the sickening silence that followed as the rumbling had also ceased. More and more people came gushing out of the main entrance like blood from a bullet wound, horrified and confused expressions on their faces. “This is not good,” said Lafontaine. They were clutching JP’s usb stick in one hand and Perry’s hand in the other so tightly that their knuckles were white.

“Dear students of Silas.” The megaphones crackled and people were shushing each other. They seemed to expect that things would be explained and then return to normal. Carmilla’s grip on Laura’s hand got so tight that it almost hurt and Laura could feel her palms getting sweaty. She wasn’t so sure whether the announcement would make anything better.

“Due to some experiments in the alchemy department that went awry, the board can no longer guarantee the safety of our students. Therefore, we must urge you all to find refuge somewhere else while we take care of the situation.” A short pause followed. “The board is not sure how long the measures will take. Students will be briefed when the campus is deemed safe again. Good luck.”

A click. Silence.

Then mayhem.

“We’re getting out of here.” It was Carmilla who spoke, a dark gleam to her eyes. People were running around the small group, some crying, some trying to call parents.

“You don’t say!” said Danny, rolling her eyes. “Any bright suggestions to where we’re headed, dead girl?”

“Did you have a better idea, warrior princess?” snapped Carmilla.

“Guys, I totally recommend we think this over, but maybe we could, you know, do it somewhere else, instead of exactly on top of this monstrous light that is most likely going to eat us?”

Thank god for Lafontaine.

They set in motion and merged with the stream of students that were rushing for the exit. “I could try to call my dad,” shouted Laura over her shoulder to the group behind her and Carmilla. “Maybe he can come pick us up?”

“Yes, yes that would be the first sane solution to this problem I’ve heard,” yelled Perry, who seemed suddenly awoken from her pod-state. “Please do. Maybe then everyone will stop acting so absurdly weird.”

With her free hand, Laura tried to get to her phone in the pocket of her jeans but running and having people bumping into you made this considerably hard. Then just as she had pulled out the damn thing far enough to grab it, someone to her right started roaring and then crashed into her, sending her phone flying. It landed somewhere ahead of them and Laura dove to get it when more people started screaming.

She saw how her phone got trampled under the feet of hysterical students but didn’t have much time to mourn the death of her loyal device. “Laura!” Two pairs of arms pulled her from the ground and at that point she saw how giant shadows spew from the ground like black steam, knocking students into the mud before descending on them. Blood curdling screams emerged from the smoke-like darkness. For a short moment the group was frozen with both Danny and Carmilla holding Laura up by her armpits before they broke into the fastest sprint Laura had ever done in her life. Fear fueled their muscles like fire as they felt the earth tremble beneath their feet.

“HERE!” Carmilla suddenly broke off to their left and for once everyone followed without question. The shadows licked at their heels and Lafontaine let out a cry of pain as it touched their arm just before they dove through a very low gateway in the campus walls – how had they never found this? Directly after the wall the grounds steeped down and their run turned into a freefall with bodies tumbling over each other and limbs smashing into tree trunks and thickly grown bushes. Then suddenly the vegetation pulled back and they rolled into a small clearing with high grass that was moist with evening dew.

Danny was the first to her feet and she turned to face the black smoke, ready as anyone could be in their current situation, but the woods behind them were silent. For a couple of painstaking moments during which Carmilla joined sides with the tall ginger, all everyone else could do was lie in the grass with their chests heaving with labored breath.

When a minute or two had passed, a feeling that the shadows weren’t following them started to dawn on the group and Laura got up slowly, all shaky from the adrenaline. Then she heard Lafontaine whimper.

“Oh god Suzan, what on earth…”

Perry crawled to the other through the grass, an expression of utter horror on her face. Laura followed her gaze and gasped, clasped a hand in front of her mouth as she saw it. Lafontaine had a giant, bubbling black patch of ooze on their left upper arm instead of skin and it dripped from the limb slowly, emitting hissing sounds. “It hurts,” Lafontaine breathed, their face all pale and sweaty and their pupils dilated. “This hurts so bad.”

“Don’t move, you’re going to be okay,” Perry put her hair behind her ear as she sat up on her knees. “We’re going to take care of your… your arm.”

Then there was Carmilla, who made a low grumbling sound in the back of her throat that made the hair on Laura’s neck stand up straight as she watched the black patch. “Carm,” Laura said. “What _is_ that?”

“I wouldn’t know the English name for it,” said the other slowly. “I haven’t seen it in centuries…”

“Is there a way to get it away?” Perry’s voice was shrill and her eyes were rimmed with tears. Lafontaine had lost consciousness, which might be for the best, judging by how painful the blackness looked. “Is there _anything_ we can do?”

“I’m not sure…”

“Think of something! Anything!! Please, I can’t let this happen, this insanity…”

Carmilla bit her lower lip. “It might work to wash it off. But then we need to move quickly.”

“But she can’t walk, look at her…” tears rolled off Perry’s cheeks.

“I’ll carry her,” offered Danny. Carmilla gave the tall redhead a silent look, which the other returned. “Do you know where we can take her? A stream somewhere maybe?”

Carmilla nodded and Danny bent over Lafontaine in order to pick them up.

“Be careful not to touch it, Xena. It’s not pleasant.”

Danny pulled up her nose. “Figured.” And scooped the small ginger into her arms.


	2. Starry Night, Cold Night

**EPISODE 2: STARRY NIGHT, COLD NIGHT**

* * *

 

As it turned out, Danny’s and Perry’s smartphones had no reception – which, as Laura pointed out, was strange since they could not be _that_ far from Silas, right – and no one was really sure what to do after they had washed the goo off of Lafontaine. It took the group about ten minutes to reach the stream that Carmilla had referred to and all this time, no one said a word.

They heard the water before they saw it; a small creek so narrow that even Laura could easily step over it. The clear water slowly trickled its way around boulders and large patches of moss and Danny put Lafontaine down carefully next to the stream. “Okay, so, so how are we going to do this?” Perry stood with her feet over the stream, putting her hair behind her ears with both hands and keeping them there. “I mean, we’re not supposed to touch it, right?”

“Not if you don’t feel like turning into a zombie, no,” Carmilla remarked casually. Laura felt the blood sink away from her face.

“A zombie?! Carm, what on- why didn’t you tell us?”

“Well, I thought it was pretty obvious,” the vampire said, both her eyebrows near her hairline, speaking in a tone that was half bored, half surprised. “As I recall, maman even said so, just before you threw her into the pit: ‘zombies will come and eat your liver’, something in that sense, am I correct?”

Everyone stared at her, baffled.

“How do you even know that,” Danny said. “You weren’t _there_ when she said that.”

Carmilla folded her arms, pulled up her lip and sneered: “Just that you couldn’t _see_ me does not mean I wasn’t there, you dimwit.”

Then a loud hissing sound, like water on a hot plate, interrupted the argument. Perry sat with her knees in the stream and her hands still dripping with water over Lafontaine’s arm, her eyes wide. The black goo _steamed_ and dripped into the stream, where it evaporated into more dark, boiling clouds. “Is this… is this normal?” Perry looked puzzled, scared, and automatically leaned away from the steam.

“As normal as crazy gets.” Casual Carmilla. This was going to be a thing.

“Here, let me help you.” Laura stepped in and cupped up more water and slowly poured it over Lafontaine’s arm. The goo sizzled and writhed as if it were alive, but steadily merged with the stream and dissolved into the water. When a part of it pulled back from Lafontaine’s arm, it revealed red and purple skin, as if they’d been beaten severely. Perry whimpered and started crying again.

Then Lafontaine stirred.

“Oh goodness, no,” Perry came into motion immediately, cupping as much of the cold water as she could. “No, Suzan, no, stay under…”

More and more water was poured over the arm, which slowly showed how badly the limb had been affected already: parts of the skin looked dead, blotchy, whereas other parts were red and swollen. Danny was pacing in the background and Carmilla just stood there, watching them and their surroundings with a brooding look.

Laura got up to snatch some leaves from nearby branches and offered a couple to Perry. “Here,” she said. “Let’s wipe the remainder off quickly.” But as they pressed the leaves to the goo and pushed, Lafontaine’s skin came off with it and Laura gagged. “I can’t do this.”

Then all at once, Lafontaine sat up, eyes wide open and a surprised ‘oh’ on their face. Their arm was bleeding and looked like it had been gnawed on by a wild animal – a stray dog, a wolf, maybe even a bear.

Perry started. “Susan?!”

Lafontaine turned to her. “It’s Lafontaine, Perrs. Lafon _taine_.”

The last blackness dripped into the stream as Perry threw her arms around the other, sobbing with happiness. “Oh god, you’re alright, you’re alright.”

Danny stepped over to Laura and put a hand on her shoulder. “You okay there?”

Laura nodded, wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand. “Yeah, sort of, I guess. Thanks, Danny.” The ginger smiled warmly at her and Laura felt a pang of guilt in her chest.

Over Danny’s shoulder, she saw that Carmilla had turned away from them, facing the woods, staring at something none of them could see. Darkness was slowly setting in, which might be the reason that it was impossible to see whether she had any expression on her face when she looked over her shoulder and said: “If you are done crying, I suggest we move.”

Danny’s mouth set firmly but she didn’t say anything, which Laura thanked her for. “She’s right,” said Lafontaine grimly. “But where are we going? It’s December, it’s going to get cold. Might even freeze tonight. And with this…” they gestured to the wounded arm. “I’m not going to be able to travel fast.” Then they laughed. “I might even attract bears. What do you say about that?”

“Well, I wouldn’t laugh about it, that’s for sure,” Perry said as she got up and helped Lafontaine get to their feet. “Although… Laura, you didn’t bring any of that bearspray with you, did you?”

Laura laughed. “No… I didn’t bring anything, actually. Nothing… Not even a proper coat.” She looked at her feet. “I thought we would have time to get things.”

“Well,” Perry didn’t sound the least surprised. “I took the liberty to pack some small supplies. Just in case. Nothing much. A blanket, matches. Some pick and mix, a bottle of water, an apple.” It was only then that Laura noticed the backpack, strapped to her shoulders. Perry looked to the others as if she was expecting them to start naming all the things they took, but no one said a thing.

“At least someone here was thinking straight when this all went down,” Carmilla said with half a smirk on her face.

Then they heard the sirens from the campus again, accompanied with a booming sound. In the twilight, beams of light shot up into the sky and the ground started shaking. “We have to move,” Carmilla said. “Follow me, I know these woods.”

Of course she did – after having attended this place for nearly a century, she probably knew them by heart.

Perry and Danny put up with Lafontaine as they stumbled down the mountain slope, trying to keep up with Carmilla. Laura kept in between them, feeling strangely excited but terrified at the same time. How had this happened, all of a sudden? Merely an hour ago, she’d been sitting on a chair next to Carmilla’s bed to record a blog, and now… Now she was running through the woods, it was getting dark, she had no proper coat, nothing to eat or drink. Her dad… Oh god, her dad didn’t even know where she was. She felt tears welling up in her eyes.

“Hey.” Carmilla looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Laura.” She slowed down her pace so that she walked next to the other, who was pretending to be busy with the ground in order not to trip. Carmilla had a strange look in her eyes as she studied Laura’s face. “Don’t worry. We’ll manage.”

Laura bit her lip to stop herself from crying and nodded, as if she agreed. Then Carmilla took her hand carefully. “Really.”

They walked for about half an hour until it got so dark that everyone except Carmilla had trouble seeing where they put their feet. Lafontaine had taken the job of cheering them up on them by singing Christmas carols, which worked miraculously well on Perry but turned Carmilla’s face into an entirely new shade of green. Laura had switched places with Perry to carry Lafontaine but despite the physical exercise, she was freezing. The sky was clear and it was crudely cold, probably around freezing point. “Carm,” she said through clattering teeth. “I can’t go on.”

At that point, Danny collapsed and the three of them fell, with Lafontaine whooping as they did.

“Danny, are you okay?” Laura asked, worried.

“Perfectly swell,” she replied, sounding tired.

“Yeah, I’m okay too, thanks for asking,” Lafontaine said from the ground and they laughed. “How about Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer? Did I do that one?”

“For the love of God, please don’t.”

“I could do a Hanukkah one?”

“Not any better, sweetheart.”

“Let’s stay here for the night,” Danny suggested tiredly. “I can’t see where I’m walking anymore and I’m really done for.”

“Yeah,” Lafontaine agreed. “Same. And cold.”

In the sparse light from the stars and moon their wounded arm looked like it was covered in the black goo again. Somehow, knowing that it was blood didn’t make it any better.

“Maybe I can get some firewood,” Laura said as she and Danny put Lafontaine down under a gigantic pine tree where the ground was riddled with needles, which would hopefully make it a little warmer. “Perry, you said you had matches?”

Before Perry even had the time to undo the clasps of her backpack, Carmilla sparked up her lighter. The sparse light illuminated the forest around them, showing pines, and pines, and more pines, and a couple of boulders left and right. Her eyes fixed on Laura. “I’ll help you,” she said.

Laura smiled. “Thanks.”

As they left the other three, they could hear Danny and Perry organizing ‘camp’, as they called it, although Laura had no idea what to set up since they didn’t bring anything, and Lafontaine started another carol. “I guess it’s nice that we brought the _outdoorsy_ types along,” Carmilla said.

“Be nice,” Laura retorted, to which she saw Carmilla smile a little.

They picked up branches here and there in silence, Laura using Carmilla’s lighter to see what she was doing while Carmilla was wandering in darkness. “So,” Laura said while clutching a pile of wood to her chest. “How does this work then, this night-vision thing of yours? Like, do you see everything al greeny, or…?”

“Not really.” Carmilla had two arms full of branches. “I see just as clearly as I do during the day. The colors just get a little… less saturated.” She tilted her head to the left slightly as she watched Laura. “What are you doing exactly?”

“Ehm, collecting firewood? Same as you?”

Then she smelled something burning. Naturally, she’d set herself on fire.

A couple of seconds later in which Laura managed to drop the wood, lose the lighter and get a smoldering hole in the left sleeve of her vest, the two of them were alone in the darkness. “Gosh-darnit, _why_ do these things keep happening to me?!”

“Your angry face is as adorable as it was before.”

“Not funny, Carm.”

“I didn’t say it was.” Carmilla’s voice was very close to her and then a small flame flickered in the darkness – a flame, dancing on Carmilla’s extended index finger. Laura felt her jaw drop.

“That, that is insane.”

Carmilla dropped the other arm of wood and stepped closer to Laura, who could now feel the heat from the flame. “Being undead has its perks,” she said softly.

A million questions welled up in Laura’s head – couldn’t she burn herself with that? Weren’t vampires supposed to be killed with incineration? Why on _earth_ did she still have the ordinary lighter if she was capable of something this awesome? – but then she realized the closeness of their bodies and the fact that they were, finally, genuinely, _alone_ for the first time since Carmilla came back.

“I’m glad we made it out in time,” she said, slowly. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Carmilla smiled weakly. “No need to get all sentimental just yet, cupcake.”

The sudden use of the nickname made Laura laugh. Then she took Carmilla’s free hand in hers and, with all the bravery she could muster, leaned in and kissed the other girl on her cheek softly. It was strange that she could just do that now – it still felt a little dangerous. When she leaned back, Carmilla’s eyes were soft for the first time since they’d escaped the campus.

“You’re cold.” It was a statement.

Laura gave her an incredulous look. “Uhm, yeah, deh? It’s freezing and all I’m wearing is this, well, this burned-up vest.”

It was meant as a joke, but Carmilla nodded dutifully and then started collecting the dropped wood, killing the flame and shrouding everything in darkness again.

“Eh… Carm?”

“Yes?”

“I appreciate you picking up that wood so we can start a fire, but I’m still human, so… no night vision for me.”

A sigh, or a chuckle, Laura wasn’t sure. Then, suddenly, oddly warm lips pressed to hers. “I know.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a dark chapter, I must admit. Tried to light it up a little, worked with some St. Vincent music - and that did the job, I think!  
> Let me know what you think! Any ooc behavior needs to be reprimaned immediately!!


	3. Episode 3: Cabin in the Woods

**EPISODE 3: CABIN IN THE WOODS**

* * *

 

When morning came, all her joints hurt and she was pretty sure that the tip of her nose had frozen off. Groaning, she opened her eyes. The woods were covered in a grayish tint, typical for the early day, and aside the rustling of the wind through the pine needles and Perry’s soft snoring it was completely silent. Then she noticed a pair of warm arms around her and realized that she’d fallen asleep in Danny’s arms.

The fire had gone out but smoldered still, as if someone had put a new log on it recently. With a warm sensation, she figured that had probably been Carmilla. Speaking of which – where was she?

Carefully, and also a little embarrassed for the position she was in, she undid Danny’s arms from around her shoulders and got up. The tall ginger grumbled in her sleep and shifted against the trunk but didn’t wake up. Laura bent over to get out from under the pine and felt all her vertebras complain – how was she even 19? She felt over a 100.

“Carm?” She stood next to the fire, her breath creating small, makeshift clouds in the air around her, rubbing her upper arms to get the blood flowing. She looked around. It was funny to see how their surroundings looked completely different from how she’d imagined them to be when it was darker – she could see other mountains looming around them and pine trees for as far as her vision went. And then the sky – there wasn’t a single cloud to be seen, which probably explained the extreme cold. The atmosphere was slowly turning into vibrant pink and yellow colors, announcing the sun. Despite how painful her body felt and how scared she’d been yesterday, she had to admit that it looked rather stunning.

“Pretty, huh.” Carmilla’s voice made her jump. The vampire stepped out of the tree line, looking exhausted, her gaze fixed on the firmament. “I know it is because it used to be my bedtime cue. But…” she sighed and her gaze went back to Laura. “I guess that there won’t be much daytime sleeping for me when I’m traveling with you.”

“Ah,” Laura blinked a couple of times while the other girl circled her slowly, only half aware of how scarily this resembled a predator and its prey. “So… How does that work?” she almost had to spin her neck to keep eye contact. “The sunlight? I mean, if it hurts you, we shouldn’t…”

“Relax, cupcake.” Carmilla smiled wickedly. “If _I_ were a bunch of humans traveling with a soon to be very hungry vampire, I would worry about… _other_ things than whether that said vampire got, well, let’s say, sunny itches.”

Laura felt blood rush to her face.

“Besides,” the vampire stepped around Laura slowly, trailing one index finger along Laura’s collarbone, who stood frozen to the ground. “I can go without sleep for a much longer time than humans can.” She leaned in towards Laura’s neck, who felt her breath on her skin. “Don’t worry about me, cutie.”

“Laura, what on earth?!”

It was Danny’s shocked voice that made both of them jump, Laura with a face that had embarrassed written all over it and Carmilla with her hands in the air, whistling Shaggy’s “it wasn’t me”.

Danny paced towards the two. “It’s not my business,” she began, to which Carmilla quickly responded with an “exactly”, which, on her turn, Danny ignored completely. “But no matter what kind of… thing you two have going on, _we_ …” and here she addressed Laura, a blush on her face. “Are _not_ human sap packs. Okay? Okay.”

And as briskly as she’d started, she turned on her heels and marched into the forest. “I’m going to go to the bathroom,” she shouted back. “Like _humans_ do.”

Laura was too flabbergasted to say anything. Carmilla raised an eyebrow. “That escalated quickly.”

Breakfast consisted of one gulp of water and a small handful of pick and mix for every one of them, except Carmilla, who pulled up her nose at the sight of it and started checking her nail rims. Laura noticed that Danny kept eyeing the vampire, as if she expected her to disembowel someone any minute.

“Well,” Perry said, wiping the dirt off her knees. “That was a good start of our day, wasn’t it?”

“Perr, that was especially pretentious, even for you.” Lafontaine sat with their back against the trunk. They looked worse than yesterday, Laura noticed. Which might also be why they still hadn’t started singing carols. “I don’t want to disturb you too much,” they continued. “But I can’t feel my arm anymore. Just thought I should mention it.”

“I can’t feel my ears,” Perry said, “isn’t it like that? That’s just the cold, Su- Lafontaine.”

“I know, but…” They lifted their arm. The blood had dried and formed giant cracked crusts over the bashed skin. “I also can’t move my fingers anymore. So it’s probably something else, right? Maybe that stuff changed my nerve endings, or the neurotransmitter count in my brain…”

“Well, as long as you don’t start craving for brains, you should be fine.” Carmilla didn’t even look up from her nailbeds.

“Carm, this isn’t funny.”

“It wasn’t meant as such. Really, why does everyone keep expecting me to make jokes? It’s an actual sign of zombification.” Her eyes went up to the group. “Probably no common knowledge. But those tales they tell you do come from somewhere, you know.”

“Anyway,” Danny said, getting up from the floor. “I’d like to start moving now. The sooner we reach some sort of civilization, the better off we’ll be. Someone can take a look at your arm, Lafontaine.”

“Amen to that.”

Then everyone turned to Carmilla, who made no attempt to hide her surprise. “What now?”

“Well, you said you knew the woods, right?” Laura explained. “So, where do we go from here? Like, the nearest town or something?”

Carmilla blinked a couple of times. “You must understand that I did not take leisure strolls while I was here. I knew where that stream was because it attracts game, which was rather crucial back in the days when blood transfusions were not common. Most of the time, I was as locked up at campus as you were. Probably a bit more.”

“How do you mean?” Danny sounded irritated.

“I _mean_ that, in all my life, I have never taken nor been given the time to explore these useless woods _and_ map everything down, Xena,” Carmilla bit back.

“Guys!” Laura stood up and got in between them. “Okay, so I know you two don’t really get along. And I’m well aware that a part of that is most likely my fault.” Danny looked away and Carmilla rolled her eyes. “But for as long as we’re stuck together in this… this crappy situation, can we please try not to get at each other as much?”

“What she said.” Perry nodded vigorously.

“So,” Laura continued, preventing both Danny and Carmilla from interrupting by putting up a finger. “I know for a fact that the mountains around Silas are not empty. My dad studied the maps extensively before he let me go here. There are a couple of small villages around. All we have to do is hike and find them, which we should be able to do before our pick and mix runs out.” She looked every member of the party in the eye once. “I suggest we get going and get somewhere as fast as possible.”

“Allright,” Lafontaine said, trying to get up. “Anyone willing to help me out here?”

And so they set out into the Styrian mountains. In spite of her hunger and the stiffness of her limbs, Laura had to admit that the nature was breathtaking. From time to time they passed by azure mountain lakes, water so clear that they could see down all the way to the ground underneath, and one time they accidentally ran into a group of deer grazing at a clearing. The deer scattered into the woods and they had to hold Carmilla back from tailing them.

Somewhere after noon they handed out another hand of pick and mix – once again, Carmilla refused – and while they were nibbling on the pieces, they stumbled upon an overgrown road made from large stones. There were cattle tracks in the center, but the amount of weeds that grew through the pavement indicated that it hadn’t been used in a very long time.

“Civilization!” Laura ran to the middle of the road and looked left and right. The rest of the group followed suit, with Carmilla carrying Lafontaine – she’d accepted on the one condition that Lafontaine refrained from the carols, or ‘horrendous ear-wreckers’, as Carmilla had called them.

“Not to be a party pooper here, Laura, but this doesn’t look like it has been ‘civilized’ in a long time,” Lafontaine remarked from Carmilla’s back.

“True, but… it’s something, right?” Laura turned to the others with a hopeful look in her eyes. “Maybe there’s a house somewhere nearby. What do you guys think, should we follow it?”

Danny looked at Perry, who looked puzzled and back to Danny, who pulled another quizzed face. Carmilla sighed. “Let’s just follow the damn road, at least it’ll make the walking a bit less tedious than that mossy mess.”

No one could argue with that and so it happened that they followed the road for a while. Some of the trees had grown over the road so much that their branches had intertwined, creating a sort of tunnel that they walked through. Small wisps of clouds that had formed during the morning had built up to a large, gray mass and the crisp day had lost its edge. The entire scene had a bit of an eerie feeling to it, as if everything felt disturbed by their presence.

Laura walked alongside Carmilla and Lafontaine, silent as they all were. “This place feels a bit… Funny, don’t you think?”

“Funny.” Lafontaine chewed on the word. “I would go with creepy, but funny works.”

“Carm?”

Carmilla eyed her slowly. “ _Peculiar_ is the word you’re looking for.”

The road bent around a gigantic tree, as crooked as Laura imagined old trees from children’s stories to be. Then all of a sudden, the contours of an estate, or maybe even a castle, loomed up in the distance.

Carmilla stopped dead in her tracks, which almost caused Lafontaine to fall off her back.

“Holy peepers,” Lafontaine commented, hanging from Carmilla’s back. “That is one huge-ass castle.”

“Xena, can you take this one from me?” It was the first time Carmilla requested anything from Danny without a sneer, but this got lost in the surprise that the castle brought upon the group.

“Let’s get going,” Perry said, excitedly. “I can’t wait to see who lives there. A baron, or a count with his countess, someone of noble blood – luxury and wealth!” Her eyes sparkled. “And, of course, a phone so that we can call a doctor.”

“And my dad,” added Laura.

“And a bed!”

“Maybe even a shower!”

Excitement washed over the group and they set in motion, Lafontaine on Danny’s back and Carmilla tailing them, staying in the sparse shade from the trees as much as possible. It was a bit further than they’d expected, and by the time they reached the gates – rusted and open, one of them hanging all crookedly in the hinges – twilight had set in again.

As they walked up the drive towards the castle, thick white flakes came down from the sky. The castle, now that they had gotten closer, did not look as royal and attractive as it had seemed from afar. None of the windows were lit, and one of the towers had collapsed entirely.

“Ehm, Perr,” Laura started slowly. “I don’t think anyone lives here anymore.”

“Gotta agree with Laura here,” Lafontaine added.

Danny and Carmilla shared a look. “It might be dangerous,” the ginger concluded their silent conversation. “Should we go in first to take a look?”

It sounded as an attractive idea, but then the snowing got worse and Laura shuddered. “Good thought, but I would like to just, you know, get out of the snow? So… Maybe we could just wait in the hall and you guys can…”

“My god.” Before anyone could say anything, Perry paced towards the doors and pushed. With an awful screeching sound, the wooden doors opened and she entered, disappearing into the darkness: “Hello? Does anyone live here? Hello? We are students from Silas University, can you help us? Hello?”

Lafontaine sighed. “And to think that she’s the one who always tells me I’m going to get myself killed.”

“Well, let’s follow her inside,” Danny said. “At least to make sure she’s not in danger.”

And so they entered the castle, Carmilla last, whose face had turned an even brighter shade of pale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I will join my family in Christmas spirit again. Have a lovely Christmas, wherever you are, and if you feel like it - let me know what you think of this!


	4. Honey, I'm Home

**EPISODE 4: HONEY, I’M HOME**

* * *

 

“Helloooo?” Perry’s voice echoed off the walls somewhere in front of them. “Anyone? Oh, another gate. Hello?” For a moment there was a bright light, then a loud smashing sound, and darkness set back again.

“That did not sound good,” Lafontaine remarked, looking pale.

“I’m going to get her, wait here,” Danny said and she took off, leaving the other three where they stood. “Perry! Wait!”

The hallway stretched out in front of them and the sparse light that came in through the opened doors was not enough to see the end of it. Piles of leaves that had blown underneath it were collected in the corners and it smelled like dampness, stones… like a _cave_ – not at all like how Laura had expected a castle to smell. Where were the pigs? The hay? The fires cooking with something delicious? She shook her head. Too much Game of Thrones.

A gust of wind whipped at their clothes and blew icy fountains of snow inside, making Laura stumble a bit further inside.

“We can’t close this door, can we?” Lafontaine asked, leaning heavily against the wall and shaking visibly. “I mean, it would be nice to be out of that cold wind, but we’d probably see nothing if we do, right?”

“Well, we could,” Laura replied. “Theoretically. I mean, Carmilla can do this really cool thing with her hands…”

“Laura,” Lafontaine put up a hand, eyes closed. “Definite tmi.”

“No it’s not, I _didn’t_ , oh gosh.” Laura stuttered and felt blood rush to her cheeks. “No, it’s like, she can make this fire…”

“I’m going to have to stop you there.”

“We are _not_ closing this door.” Carmilla still stood in the doorway, her hair in a wild wind-whipped frenzy and one foot still outside, her hand grabbing the wooden doorpost so tightly that Laura saw it splinter a little. Her eyes were fixed on a point in the darkness ahead of them and her mouth was set in a thin line. “Actually, I think I’ll stay outside.”

“No, Carm, don’t be silly, why would you do that?” Laura stepped towards the door but recoiled when Carmilla’s head snapped to her and she made that same back-throated growling sound she’d made earlier when confronted with the black goo. Laura felt her heart beating against her ribcage.

“Woah, take it easy there, tiger,” Lafontaine said, carefully.

“You have no idea.” Carmilla turned her head to Lafontaine threateningly slowly, teeth baring. “You all, you don’t… Argh.” Carmilla’s brows furrowed and she pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers, her eyes closed, as if she had a major headache. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make us!” Laura took another step towards the door. “What’s going on?”

“Guys?” Danny’s voice reached them from further down the corridor and everyone started. Carmilla groaned.

“Danny?!” Laura took a step further down the hall. “Everything alright? Is Perry with you?”

“I am fine, but… No, I… I think I need Carmilla to help me here, Perry went through a gate that fell shut behind her and I can’t open it on my own.” It was silent for a moment. “God, it’s _really_ dark in here. What’s this? Oh _god_ , really large spider, oh god, DIE.”

Laura and Lafontaine looked back at Carmilla, who was still lingering on the doorstep. Then she sighed deeply and her shoulders slouched down. “Very well,” she said. “But I’m not going to make this helping-humans-thing into a habit. Just so you know.”

As she stepped from the doorway, she closed the wooden doors behind her, shrouding them all in complete darkness. Laura knew it couldn’t be true, but it felt as if the temperature went up instantly.

Then a little flame lightened up the darkness, dancing on Carmilla’s index finger just like she’d done the night before. “That is _awesome_ ,” Lafontaine breathed from the wall and Laura snickered.

“There is more where this came from,” Carmilla said, her eyes falling on Laura’s for just a split second.

Lafontaine gave Laura a look that said I-see-what-you-did-there and Laura looked away, blushing. Carmilla strode past them, her flaming finger in the air, half a smirk on her face as she said: “follow mother superior.”

As it was lit up, the ‘hallway’ proved to be a narrow but long and high room, probably the gateway, with empty torch holders and small slits in the wall that were filled with rotten leaves and twigs. Almost at the end they passed underneath a rather terrifying looking gate with sharp points, which, for some reason, was still pulled up. Immediately behind it was another enormous fortified wooden gate with a large black lock mechanism on the center. Danny was leaning against it, her face sweaty.

“That is a neat trick,” she said breathily, nodding towards the flame.

“Can’t teach you, I’m afraid,” Carmilla said.

Lafontaine, who leaned heavily on Laura’s shoulder, pointed at the gate. “Perr went through that? And she didn’t even stop when you called her?”

Danny shook her head. “She might not have heard me, there was a lot of wind. I’m not sure if she’s still behind it, it’s a really heavy door and I can’t hear anything coming through.” She got some loose strands of hair out of her face. “She might be waiting for us on the other side.”

“Well, thank god this isn’t the Styx then,” Carmilla said in her casual tone. Then she walked towards the gate slowly, studying the mechanism. There was a torch in the holder next to the gate and she went up to it, lit it with her finger and handed it to Danny before putting out her own flame.

“Did it fall into the lock?” She cracked her knuckles.

“I think so,” Danny replied. “I tried lifting it a little because it looks slumped, but that didn’t do it any good.”

Carmilla sighed. “I really shouldn’t be doing this on an empty stomach.” She looked over her shoulder and then back to the door. “But, well, no sap packs for me, right?”

Before anyone could say a thing, Carmilla pulled her fist back and then smashed it right through the lock, sending wood and iron flying all over the place. Cold wind gushed through instantly, making awful howling sounds, specks of snow and ice twirling around. “That was satisfying,” she said, rubbing her fingers contently. Then she turned to Danny. “Xena? The pleasure is all yours.”

A little hesitant, Danny curled her fingers around the hole and pulled. The wind and snowflakes that gushed through finished the torch flame immediately and had everyone put up their arms in front of their faces. “What on earth is this?!” Laura yelled against the wind, her eyes squinted, trying to see a little.

“My best guess… the courtyard,” Lafontaine shouted.

“The biomajor is right,” Carmilla added. She seemed unaffected by the baffling winds as she looked left and right before turning to them again. “But I’m afraid June Cleaver is not here.”

“Perr?!” Lafontaine’s voice didn’t carry far. The wind was too overpowering.

“We have to find shelter from this storm,” Danny shouted. “We might even find Perry there.”

“Bright idea,” Laura replied, oblivious to the incredulous look on Carmilla’s face.

“Do you have any idea how large this place is?!” She put a hand over her face. “No, of course you haven’t – Laura, this is a _schloss_. There are at least a hundred rooms in this place. Your friend could be anywhere.”

“Not Perr,” said Lafontaine, shaking her head. “She hates cold. Always has. She’s inside somewhere.”

Carmilla threw her hands in the air. “Then, by all means, do your thing.”

They walked through the gate slowly against the snowstorm, Danny hauling Lafontaine with her this time. Because the left part of the castle’s walls and towers had collapsed, the wind could enter the usually secluded courtyard easily and yanked at their clothes and hair as they staggered towards another big door on the other side of the open space.

Laura was there first, Danny and Lafontaine right behind her. As a blast of snow and icy air threw her against the door, it swung open and she fell inside face first, scraping her elbow in an attempt to cushion her fall and hitting her head against the stone floor. Wincing, she tried to get up when Danny and Lafontaine stumbled in, both of them falling to the ground same as Laura after Danny tripped over Laura’s leg.

“Goddamnit,” Danny groaned. “Everyone alright?”

“Sort of,” Lafontaine said slowly, the two of them one pile of limbs. “I mean, I was groggy to begin with, so I’m not sure whether I’m a reliable source.”

“Laura?” Danny was up on one elbow.

Then Carmilla bolted in, nostrils flaring and her eyes ablaze, like the mad dog from Laura’s home village that had to be put down after he’d dragged a kid from his scooter. Her mouth was open slightly and she was breathing heavily, her chest heaving with every in- and outtake of air she took, her eyes fixed upon Laura. Everyone’s gaze went from her to the gash on Laura’s elbow, blood welling from it slowly.

Laura paled. “Oh god.” She couldn’t move, not even if she wanted to.

“No, stay away,” Danny struggled to her feet and got in between Laura and the door. “Carmilla, listen, you don’t want to do this.”

But the other didn’t even bother to look at the redhead and kept eyeing Laura, her shoulders up high and her body tense like a bowstring. No one moved – heck, Laura barely dared to breathe as she was transfixed by the two dark eyes pinned on her. This must be that hypnosis thing that vampires did, just like with Mina Harker… God, why did she re-read Dracula again? Carmilla pulled up her upper lip and she saw how a set of very sharp teeth, fang-like nearly, sunk in over her usual denture. She shivered. How long had it been since Carmilla had last eaten? “Carm…” her voice broke. She was powerless.

“Carmilla… Take a step back.” Danny stepped towards the door slowly and put her hands up, palms facing Carmilla, whose eyes finally flicked to her. “Easy now.”

For a split second, Laura was absolutely sure that Carmilla was going to tear Danny’s guts out.

But then Carmilla yanked her head to a side and her body slumped against the doorframe, her hands clawing into the wood. In between gasps of air, she growled a set of foreign words that sounded like cussing. Everyone let out the breath they had been holding unknowingly.

“Alright, that’s okay Carmilla, take it easy.” Danny cautiously took another step. “Here, come in, I’ll close the door behind you.”

Carmilla nodded, her eyes still closed, and she slowly stepped from the doorstep into the room putting up a hand. “I’ll close it myself, no need for you to get all worked up.” Her voice was trembling. Then she closed the door and leaned against it heavily.

It was only then that Laura finally felt her muscles relax and she slouched to the floor, staring at the ceiling, suddenly aware of how fast and hard her heart was beating in her chest. She remembered Carmilla warning her about this, but somehow she hadn’t expected it to be this… intense.

“Laura.”

She looked at the dark haired girl, still leaning against the door, suddenly looking so fragile. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Laura nodded slowly, getting up half. “Don’t worry about me, Carm, I’m… I’m alright.”

Carmilla closed her eyes again and kept quiet.

“Okay then,” Lafontaine said carefully. “Now that this is all set, I just want to point out that this place is… _unreal_.”

When Laura turned around to see what Lafontaine was referring to, her mouth fell open.

They had barged into the great hall, there was no doubt about that. It was an enormous room with large windows to their left, the glass miraculously still intact, gigantic pillars in the center suspending wooden beams and a ceiling maybe as much as fifteen yards above them and remainders of a red carpet leading to some sort of throne at the far end of the space. Remnants of wooden benches lay around left and right and there were two tapestries hanging behind the throne, so dusty that it was impossible to tell what they portrayed. Laura got up slowly, clutching her elbow.

“We should’ve just stayed the hell out of this place,” Carmilla grunted from the door.

Laura walked up to the other, worried. “Why? Carm…?” But when she tried to put a hand on Carmilla’s arm, the other shrugged it off. She was paler than usual and although her poise was tense, she managed to smile sarcastically. “I wouldn’t… Just don’t get too close yet, Laura, okay?”

Danny gave Laura a warning look. Laura nodded and backed off. “Sure, Carm… Are you… Are you alright?”

Finally, Carmilla opened her eyes. In the glance that she gave her, she suddenly looked as old as she actually was. A chill ran down Laura’s spine. “As alright as I can be, cupcake,” she sighed before she laughed mirthlessly. “Especially considering…” she gestured around the great hall with an arm, a melancholic expression on her face. “Especially considering the fact that I’ve been here before.”

“You’ve…”

At that moment, a blood curdling scream started everyone. Lafontaine’s eyes widened.

“Perr.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to set the scenery here, but that should be done by now.. Next chapters will involve more personal stuff!  
> Let me know what you think! :)


	5. What happens in Styria...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delayed writing! I had exams and they took up nearly all of my free time... But here goes nothing! Hope you enjoy!

Everyone fell in a state of total panic. Danny had thrown herself over Lafontaine to keep them from running after Perry, Laura was making sidesteps, her hands in her hair, stuttering incoherent parts of sentences. Carmilla eyed the chaos from the wooden door, her gaze glassy, like she wasn’t really there.

“Okay, this is enough!” Danny worked herself off of Lafontaine, keeping one hand on their shoulder to pin them down. Her hair was tangled in front of her face as she breathed: “This is _not_ going to work. Lafontaine, as much as I appreciate you being the brains of us…”

Carmilla snickered and muttered something that sounded like “finally someone said it”.

“…I think you are a little too involved with this to think clearly.” Danny threw a dangerous look at Carmilla. “Besides, you are, like, half _zombified_ – you can’t go running after Perry right now, it’s not safe. It’s not _smart_.”

Laura nodded and Lafontaine groaned submissively from the floor. Danny took a deep breath and then slowly released the other ginger from her grip. “Someone needs to stay with her,” she said, referring to Lafontaine. “We can’t leave her here by herself. But she can’t join the search, either. Besides…” she nudged her head towards the windows, through which less and less light was coming in. “It’s getting dark. We should make refuge somewhere.”

“We could use the carpets as beds, or blankets,” Laura suggested. “And those benches will make for firewood, right?”

“Good thinking.” Danny agreed. “Okay, then, who’s going to stay with Lafontaine and who’s going to look for Perry?”

Another scream, this time a little softer, made the hairs on their necks stand up. “We have no time for this,” Lafontaine cried from the floor. “Perry might be in danger!”

“I’ll go look for your Cleaver,” Carmilla said, surprising everyone. She looked at the others for a moment, her eyebrows rising. “What? Is it really that strange that I suggest something remotely friendly?”

When there came no direct answer, she sighed. “Alright then. Look at it this way: I am the only one who can see properly without direct light. There might be something dangerous in this castle. I know this place. Does it still sound strange that I suggest I’d go?”

“You’re right,” Laura said. “But, Carm, you’re starving… You shouldn’t go alone.”

Danny stepped in. “I’ll join you, dead girl.” Her eyes had a strange, determined expression in them.

Carmilla huffed. “As long as you don’t slow me down, amazon.”

“I think it might be the other way around.”

This time, the vampire laughed. Then she turned to Laura, a serious glance on her eyes. “In the unlikely case that we’re not back within the hour, take the biomajor with you to the Lord’s bedroom. You go through this door,” she pointed at another wooden door, at the other end of the hall. “And take the stairs. Go up three levels. Enter the hallway and take the fifth door on the right. Barricade the door. Don’t open it for anyone else besides me or the warrior princess. Wait for us there.”

Laura swallowed hard. “Anyone else? How do you…”

“Later,” Carmilla interrupted her. “Xena, let’s go.”

They opened the door to the stairs and disappeared, leaving only the heavy thud of the door falling into place. Total silence fell on both Laura and Lafontaine as they huddled together against one of the pillars. “Oh darn it.” Laura smacked her face. “Carmilla didn’t leave her fire.”

Lafontaine laughed weakly. “I swear, Laura, if anything happened to Perr… I don’t…”

“Don’t think about it,” Laura said, putting a hand on Lafontaine’s good arm. “We can’t know for sure. Maybe she just ran into some… Really big spiders.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Lafontaine stared at a point in the distance. “Except that this is Styria and the largest spiders are harmless. I study biology, Laura, I know this.”

“Oh, come on.” Laura got up, dusting herself off. “We gotta keep it together, alright? I mean… I feel as bad as you do, but we have to keep our spirits up. Carm and Danny are out there and they are the most badass rescuers we could ask for, right? Now you stay right there, I’ll get the carpets.”

Because of the heavy snowfall there was virtually no moon and the darkness that had set in was as thick as oil on their eyes. It was hard to find where the carpet started and where the dirt and dust ended and Laura hit her knees and shins against benches several times. When she finally got her hands on the carpet it fell apart under her fingers. “Ohhh yuk,” she exclaimed. “This is completely molded. Eugh.”

“Maybe you can try the tapestries behind the throne,” Lafontaine suggested. Their voice sounded strained. Laura reckoned they were probably crying and she felt her stomach turn. How much time had passed since Danny and Carmilla left? Maybe ten minutes? It felt like a century. “Smart thinking.”

Lafontaine laughed. “You heard your girlfriend. I _am_ the brains.”

Despite the situation, Laura felt her cheeks redden. “She’s not my girlfriend, I mean… We didn’t…”

“Oh, come on Laura. Please. I know she’s snogged you.”

“Yes, but… Kissing is not… AUCH.” She limped after colliding with another bench. “We haven’t dtr’ed yet, you know. I don’t want to go and _label_ things.”

“Geez, Laura, dtr, seriously?” Lafontaine snickered. “You have seen too much of Awkward.” They were silent for a short moment. “How does it feel, by the way?”

“How does what feel?” Laura took very careful steps. She should be really close to the wall now, she had just passed the throne – or, rather, ran into it – but it was so dark that she couldn’t even see her own hands in front of her eyes properly.

“Well, you know. Kissing a vampire. The fangs and such. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Oh, ehm…” the blush that crept on her face felt as if she’d set her head on fire. “I didn’t really, think about that, you know, I, euh… I don’t know, actually, I didn’t feel them or anything.”

“Interesting.”

Then her hands found the tapestry. Now how was she going to lift this enormous thing from the wall?

“Maybe her teeth sink in, just like in Supernatural,” Lafontaine continued. “It would be fascinating to see that. Maybe I could ask her. I mean, that would mean she’d have an entire set of teeth on top of her own, that’s pretty damn awesome. Don’t you agree? Laura?”

A shriek and a thump later, Laura had gotten the tapestry off the wall and all over herself. Coughing and gasping for air she clawed her way out from underneath it. “Laura?” Lafontaine’s voice carried from across the hall. “You ok?”

“Yeah, yes, I’m fine! Goodness. This is dusty.” Another coughing fit took hold of her. “Laf? Can you keep talking? Then I know where to go to.”

“Sure. So, I was thinking; I already suspected that vampire fangs are triggered by something. Else they’d be pretty obvious, don’t you think? Sharpened teeth are not something you run into every day, right? So I reckon that they either change shape or are replaced, or something. Either way, it sounds cumbersome. Hold on, she bit you, right?”

Laura huffed, dragging the tapestry behind her.

“And her teeth didn’t look sharp before she did that?”

“I didn’t particularly pay interest to her dentures,” Laura muttered between clenched teeth. The tapestry was _heavy_ and got caught up in the benches all the time.

“Hmmm. I guess there’s no telling. I’ll have to ask her.”

“Here,” Laura dropped the tapestry in front of Lafontaine, sending large clouds of dust into the air. “I present to you; a collection of dust. Ancient. Very valuable. Probably the largest treasure found in Styria in _ages_.” She sat down next to Lafontaine with a sigh and pulled the fabric over them both. It smelled old and dusty, but not particularly nasty.

“I wonder what it says,” Lafontaine said, tracing the tapestry with their fingers. “It’s a shame I can’t… Hold up. Laura, could you reach into my pocket? I can’t get there with my arm.”

“Ehm, sure? What am I looking for?”

“Matches.”

“Matches?! Seriously? You had me bumping into every single bench in this forsaken hall and _now_ you mention you have matches?!”

“Just look for them, will you!”

Laura traced Lafontaine’s side to their hip and found the pocket of their jeans, from which she yanked a small box. She shook it and heard the rattling of matches inside. “Matches.”

“I’m sorry, Laura,” Lafontaine said, but the laugh in their voice betrayed them. 

“I’ll remember this.” Laura got a match out and struck it. The flickering flame sent an orange glow through the hall and illuminated the tapestry in front of them. Because of its fall and the fact that Laura had dragged it along with her, some of the dust had been beaten out of it and the vague outlines of letters were visible.

“What does it say? Can you read it?”

Lafontaine tilted their head, wiped some more dust off of the fabric. “It’s something with an ‘a’ and ‘r’ here. Hold on,” they started hitting the fabric and dust burst out of it, making Laura drop the match as they were both coughing their lungs out. Luckily, the match went out because of the fall before it could set fire to the fabric.

“Strike another one,” Lafontaine insisted. “There are enough in there. It’s a full box, right?”

“It is.” Laura got another match and struck it. Then they both gasped as the tapestry now read, very clearly and in big, dark gothic letters: KARNSTEIN.

Then a gust of wind blew out the match. A sudden coldness descended on the two.

“Laura, are you…”

“Shhh!” Laura put a finger on Lafontaine’s lips. “It’s not supposed to be windy in here,” she whispered, feeling her heart race in her chest. This was insane.

Then they heard a soft, hissing sound that seemed to come from all around them. More wind started to blow. A faint light now came from the windows – it must’ve stopped snowing – and particles of dust danced in the rays of moonlight. The hissing got louder.

With shaking fingers, Laura lit another match.

Dark shadows had surrounded them, shadows in the shape of humans, shadows that _were hissing at them_.

Laura didn’t even scream. It was as if an internal survival instinct took over. She shoved the tapestry off her, grabbed Lafontaine who had frozen to the spot, and ran for the door. The shadows set in motion nearly instantly, blocking her path, but Laura ran straight through them – it felt as falling into a very, very cold bath. Shaking, she threw herself against the door to the stairwell. It swung open and the two of them fell through, the shadows right behind them. She closed the door with a kick, heard the shadows hiss viciously behind it, and ran up the stairs with Lafontaine thrown over her shoulders, her lungs and legs burning, tears in her eyes. She had never been so afraid in her entire life.

She counted the levels they passed and at the third level she launched herself against the door, barging into a hall with small slits for windows that let in just enough moonlight to see the dark outlines of other big, wooden doors. The hissing had reached the stairwell behind them and had turned into a form of malicious laughter, the form that Laura had only heard in horror movies. For a very brief moment, she was completely sure that she was going to die.

She closed the door behind them and dragged Lafontaine with her to the fifth door, opened it, pushed Lafontaine inside, stepped through and closed the door. The key, as she found it, was in the lock so she turned it. Lafontaine then offered her a large wooden beam – she didn’t even know where they had found it – and she put it over the iron holders on the door. Fortified.

“What was that.” Lafontaine’s voice was high pitched. “What were those??”

“I don’t…” Laura was gasping for air and suddenly her legs gave out from underneath her and she collapsed to the floor. “I don’t know, I don’t know… Oh god, Danny and Perry and Carmilla are out there somewhere…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is getting pretty dark...  
> Next chapter will have some explaining!


	6. It's a small world after all

The laughter that had haunted them up the stairs suddenly stopped, leaving an eerie silence. Laura and Lafontaine were breathing heavily, staring at the door, realizing very painfully that it was the only thing guarding them against… Well… Whatever it was that they’d run from.

“Come,” Lafontaine whispered, putting a hand on Laura’s shoulder but keeping their gaze fixed on the door. “I don’t think they’ll come in here.”

They heard a soft cackling in the distance, echoing against the castle walls. Laura’s heart raced in her chest, she couldn’t move. “There must’ve been a reason for Carmilla to send us here,” Lafontaine continued. “The door must be fortified, like extra heavy wood, maybe there’s some sort of deterrent on it…”

“I fell _through_ them, Laf,” Laura muttered shakily. “I doubt there’s anything physical that can hold them back.”

Lafontaine gave her a worried look. “That sounds like... Like maybe they were ghosts.” They looked back at the door. “Then this must be some form of deterring spell. It might be like that one corridor in the library where we just couldn’t walk through the door even though it was open, remember?” They had an excited gleam in their eyes. “Every step you tried to take through it just ended up with you turned around against that door.”

“Ugh, this is insane,” Laura pressed her palms against her face. “Vampires? Ghosts? _Karnstein_ ghosts?”

A booming howl ripped apart the silence and the two started. “Bejeezers, what was that?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, let’s hope this door will stop it,” Lafontaine said, their voice shrill with fear.

“We’ve got to get something to defend ourselves with,” Laura stated, getting up from the floor slowly. Her gaze fell on Lafontaine, who clutched their wounded arm and looked even paler than before. “And you should lie down.”

She looked around the room for the first time. There was a huge, _huge_ bed on a slight elevation against the righter wall, with a view on the windows on the other side of the room. There were more dusty tapestries here and paintings that were so gritty that it was impossible to see what they portrayed. A thick layer of dust covered everything except for the floor where Laura and Lafontaine had fallen down. Along the wall with the door where robust wooden cupboards with fancy handlers and Laura made her way to one.

“You lie down on that bed,” she instructed Lafontaine while she yanked at the grips. “I’ll see whether I can find anything to… I don’t know… hit them? Can we hit ghosts?”

“I don’t know,” Lafontaine admitted, dragging herself towards the bed. “All I know is that I can’t help you in case things get dirty. I… I can barely lift my feet. Just now… Must’ve been an adrenaline rush or something.” They dropped themselves to the bed with a sigh and clouds of dust that made the ones from the tapestry look like a failed science experiment filled the room.

“Don’t worry about it,” Laura said, coughing, tugging her hair behind her ear while digging through stacks of parchment and other small peculiar things that she couldn’t identify. Then she hit gold – or, well, silver. “Laf,” she breathed. “Check this out.”

She pulled a dagger from the cupboards. While dusting it off, a beautiful inlaid pattern became visible with a handle that twisted artfully around the blade itself.

“That is some awesome shit, Laura,” Lafontaine said from the bed, eyes wide. “Pardon my French.”

“Okay, so, okay.” Laura took a deep breath, eyes closed. “I have to go out and look for the others.”

Lafontaine sat up immediately. “Don’t be stupid Laura.”

“No, but they’re…”

“You know that I usually am all up for crazy and weird things, right, Laura?” Lafontaine’s gaze pinned Laura to the floor. “But this is suicide. I can’t let you go out there and get yourself killed. The odds are against you.”

“The odds are never in my favor.”

“My god Laura, really?”

Laura threw her hands up, still clutching the dagger. “Then what am I supposed to do, Laf? They are out there, they might be in danger. No, wait, hold on,” she smiled sarcastically. “They _are_ in danger, and all we can do is sit here and hope that they’ll make it?”

Then they heard soft, rustling sounds from behind the door, after which the handle moved. The two stared at the door in utter horror. When it wouldn’t open, there were three, loud thumps. Laura dropped the dagger and let out a small, girly shriek while Lafontaine rolled themselves off the bed by accident.

“Laura?”

Carmilla’s voice. Laura’s eyes widened and she ran for the door, putting her hands against the wood and leaning in with her ear. “Carm?!”

“It’s okay Laura, you can let us in.”

“O- Okay, okay hold on,” Laura tugged the wooden beam from the holders and was about to turn the key when Lafontaine hissed: “don’t do it!”

“What?” Laura turned to the other, her one hand on the key and the other on the handle. Lafontaine’s head popped up from behind the bed. They had a very serious look on their face. “It might not be Carmilla,” she whispered, barely audible. “They might be trying to trick us.”

Laura felt her heart sink. “You think?” she whispered back, feeling her palms getting sweaty.

“Laura, what’s taking so long?” Carmilla’s voice again.

“Ehh, wait a second, the beam is very heavy,” Laura replied hastily before turning to Lafontaine again. “What do I do?!”

“Ask her something only Carmilla could know,” Lafontaine whispered, face gleaming with perspiration although it was terribly cold in the room. “Anything. Think, Laura!”

Laura flustered and swallowed hard.

“Laura?”

“Carm… What is…” Laura cleared her throat. “What is the first thing I said to you after you kissed me?”

Despite the situation, she heard Lafontaine snicker behind her.

“Do you really think this is the time to ask me that, Laura?” Carmilla sounded irritated.

“Just, come on, just say it,” Laura replied, her heart beating fast.

She heard Carmilla make a grumbling sound that suddenly turned into a devilish snarl as she heard someone else grunt “I’ll rip your head off your neck, you stinking wench!”

Something heavy thudded against the door and heaps of dust came off the ceiling. Monstrous sounds came from the corridor. “Get out of my sight before I stake you!”

“That was Danny’s voice,” Lafontaine breathed from the bed. Laura had taken two steps back from the door and stared at it in utter fear, frozen to the spot.

“Carm! On your left!”

A roar made Laura clap her hands over her ears. Then it got very quiet. For a heartbeat or four, nothing happened.

Then there were two, quick thumps on the door before Carmilla’s voice sounded again: “I can’t believe you would make me say it. But… So you’re a giant black cat, huh?”

Laura nearly fell towards the door as Lafontaine snorted from the bed. She turned the key and opened it after which Carmilla and Danny stumbled in, Danny carrying an unconscious Perry in her arms. Laura shut the door right behind them. The three of them looked awful – all were covered in dust and, to Laura’s horror, blood. Carmilla’s eyes were tired, more tired than she’d seen in a while.

“Oh my god,” she uttered before throwing her arms around the vampire. “Oh god you’re okay.” Then she pulled back, keeping a hand on Carmilla’s waist as if to reassure herself that she was still there, and turned to Danny who slowly put Perry down on the bed next to Lafontaine, who immediately crawled over to the other.

“Are you hurt, Danny?”

“Not really,” the ginger said, turning towards Laura and Carmilla, wiping some blood of her brow. She was trembling when she tucked some of her hair behind her ear. “This is not our blood. It was… This castle…” she shook her head. “I’ll let Carmilla do the explaining.”

Laura looked back at Carmilla, who hadn’t said a thing since their entrance. When she spoke, her voice sounded strained, machine-like: “I take it you have also met my family.”

“Your family.” It was Lafontaine who spoke as Laura stared at Carmilla, flabbergasted. “Your family is a bunch of… what, ghosts? Evil malicious human-killing ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” Carmilla snorted. “Of course not. I thought you were the clever one.”

“But, what…” Laura shook her head. “I don’t understand. I thought your family was the lair of vampires that governs that light thing under our campus?”

“That’s my new family, yes,” Carmilla said, sounding exhausted, one of her hands pressed against her forehead. “But I had an old one. The Karnsteins.”

The sheer mention of the name triggered a terrible screaming and laughter, combined with rapping on the door and walls and the most eerie howling of wind through crevices in the windows. The group stood there in pure horror. “After maman took me, after I was killed at the ball, that is… She sent some of her minions to get the rest of my family. She didn’t tell me for the longest time.”

“To get to your family…” Laura took a deep breath. “Meaning that they are vampires, too?”

Carmilla nodded and suddenly her expression broke. Her eyes were rimmed with tears and her teeth clenched together when she spoke: “Vampires of the worst kind, because they were cursed right after conceiving – to never leave the castle and to hunt all that entered. Maman was very clever in that, you see, because otherwise I would’ve run back to them after finding out about what happened to them.”

Everyone needed a couple of moments to gather that information. Laura carefully put a hand on Carmilla’s shoulder and squeezed softly.

“Then we should’ve never entered,” Lafontaine said, being the first to accept the story they’d just been given. “You didn’t want to enter but you didn’t stop us either, that – I mean, I totally get you didn’t want to go back here, but you kinda knew it would be dangerous for us to go inside, right?”

Carmilla shook her head. “I… I figured they should have died because no one ever comes here. I lived with the realization that they had perished without sustenance for almost a century… Only to find out that maman had been very, very thorough.” Her voice broke at the end of the sentence.

“That’s enough,” Laura said, stepping in between the gingers and Carmilla, as if she was protecting her. But Carmilla continued her story: “she had provided them with gallons and gallons of human blood, stored away in special containers in the basement.”

The horrible realization hit Laura as Carmilla slowly raised her hands, which were covered in thick brown crusts. “Containers that we accidentally broke when we were fighting with my sisters. After which… They went completely haywire.”

“Perry had run off to the cellars,” Danny stepped in, allowing Carmilla to regain her posture. “We found her footsteps pretty much right away after we left the main hall and followed them downstairs. The sisters had found her as well and were playing with her… I guess they haven’t had much of a hunt in a couple of decades.” Despite the situation, Danny seemed very cool. She was probably the only one who accepted what had happened to them. “While Carmilla managed to distract them, I went in to get Perry out of there. It was at that moment that one of them smelled me and bit me.”

Laura gasped. She felt Carmilla stiffen next to her.

Danny cocked her head to the side and showed two small puncture holes in her neck. “I managed to kick her off me but Perry started screaming and hitting her, which didn’t do much good, unfortunately, because then the other sisters came back.” She put her hair back over her shoulder. “Carmilla rushed in to rescue us and accidentally broke a couple of containers – they just looked like giant iron boulders, we had no idea…” She gulped. “Gallons of blood washed over us and the sisters shrieked like they were in pain… We ran for our lives. When we got to the hall you were gone. Then Carmilla saw the tapestry and we started up the stairs immediately. When we got here, one of the sisters was about to try and smash the door, so we fought her off.”

“This is the Lord’s bedroom as I told you,” Carmilla said softly. “It is a very special room in the castle as it used to be blessed by the local priest regularly. That’s why they couldn’t come in unless you invited them.” Then she looked at Laura for the first time. “I could only enter because you opened the door for me.”

Laura felt her eyes burn with tears.

“Let’s take a moment to catch our breath,” Danny suggested. “Perry will be fine, she only hit her head when the containers fell over. She should come by anytime soon. And I could use a nap.”

“Amen to that,” Lafontaine breathed.

The group settled in the bedroom. Carmilla took one of the cupboards apart and started a fire in the fireplace with the wooden remains while the gingers slept soundly in the gigantic bed. Laura paced around the room, mumbling to herself and fidgeting. “Laura,” Carmilla sighed. “Will you please sit down? You’re getting on my nerves.”

“I’m… I’m sorry Carm, I just… It’s just…” Laura shook her head and then walked up to Carmilla, put her hands around the other’s face and leaned in to kiss her. Then she wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged her as hard as she could, her face nestled in the space between Carmilla’s jaw and collarbone. “I feel so bad for you,” she muttered against her skin. “I wish you didn’t have to go through this.”

“It’s alright, cupcake,” Carmilla replied, her voice strained as she put her arms around Laura as well. “I would have to go back eventually. I couldn’t live with not knowing exactly what had happened to them, I knew that… I just didn’t think it would be now.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Laura pulled her face back to look at Carmilla. Hurt clenched her stomach and heart as she saw that the other was crying: silent tears ran down her cheeks as she slowly shook her head, her eyes closed. When she opened them, the purest despair spoke from them, hitting Laura in the gut.

“The curse is perpetual,” she spoke softly. “All we can do is let them starve.”

Then she shook her head and leaned in towards Laura, putting their foreheads together, breathing heavily. Laura didn’t know what to say.

“Let’s… let’s think about it tomorrow,” she said eventually. “For now… For now we could all use some sleep. You most of all, Carm. Let’s think about it tomorrow and leave it for now.”

Carmilla nodded slowly. “That sounds like a plan.”

Then she tilted her head sideways and put her lips on Laura’s. The kiss was slow and full of emotion, full of hurt and sadness. It was the weirdest and strangest and most intense kiss Laura had ever had – not that she had much to compare it with, but still. Carmilla pulled back for a short moment to allow Laura to catch her breath before she carefully put her lips over Laura’s upper lip, sucking it softly.

The intensity of the kiss started something warm in Laura’s stomach, something that made her press against Carmilla even more, so much that it almost felt like they would merge together. She opened her mouth and kissed Carmilla back and the two of them slowly sat down, not breaking the kiss for one moment. Carmilla’s arms were everywhere around her as she sat on her lap, the other girl trailing kisses down her jawline and to her neck before coming back up.

The look they shared said everything there was to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes... This is how it works, ladies and gentlemen. What next?

**Author's Note:**

> Got the idea for this after finishing the Carmilla nouvelle (it's a recommended reading!)  
> Hope you enjoyed, more chapters are coming up... With some more intenste stuff between Laura and Carmilla, as well.  
> English is not my native tongue and although I think I've got most of it right, do point out grammar mistakes because I'm totally picky on them myself (and I would like to improve)!  
> \--> as one of you pointed out already, I've changed Lafontaine's pronouns in my work except for when it's Danny/Perry talking about them, because I feel that these two are either too stubborn or oblivious to use the proper ones.


End file.
